Thursday, 12 February 2009

“MacBride refuses to stand behind himMcQuaid has got him in a viceThe country turns its back upon himNo choice left but to resign…”

Both people mentioned in the above verse will be a mystery to many, but those of a certain age will know the song deals with one of the most enigmatic men to ever grace Irish politics – Dr. Noel Browne. No matter what ones views on him, it can hardly be argued but that he changed Ireland and for the better. Sixty years ago the country was in the grip of Tuberculosis, also known as Consumption. Noel Browne set out to rid Ireland of the dreaded disease and, amazingly, he succeeded. Not single-handedly, of course, but he was the engine that drove a crusade.As many who knew him would testify, he could be a difficult man at the best of times. Then again, his boyhood was beyond Dickensian. His father died from the disease when Browne was seven. Homeless and near destitution, his mother took the family to England where she soon after expired. His account of kissing her damp forehead goodbye would wrench tears from a stone. His elder brother - crippled from birth by the curse - along with two of his sisters would die from it, while Browne himself suffered recurring attacks through much of his life. Yet there is a fairy-tale element to this tale. Through sheer good fortune and his immigrant sister’s efforts he was enrolled gratis in St. Anthony’s, an exclusive Catholic prep school. He then won a scholarship to Beaumont, a Jesuit public school, where he met Neville Chance whose wealthy family more or less adopted him and paid his way through Trinity College where he resolved to become a doctor. Although he would later specialize in psychiatry, he devoted his early medical years to eradicating Tuberculosis. He and his colleagues did Trojan work in various hospitals in the UK and Ireland, but he eventually realized that the magnitude of the problem called for a political solution. He joined the nascent Clann na Poblachta party led by Sean MacBride (talk about a fascinating, controversial and multi-faceted character). In the general election of 1948, Dr. Browne was elected on a personal platform of eradicating TB. On his first day in Dail Eireann he was chosen as Minister for Health in the coalition government that had unseated Eamonn DeValera’s Fianna Fail party. The new government was riven by ideological differences. Led by Fine Gael’s John A. Costello, it spanned the spectrum from right to left - while to add fat to the fire the Minister for External Affairs, MacBride, had once been chief of staff of the IRA.Nonetheless, Browne hit the ground running. He recognized that the only way to halt and ultimately defeat the disease was to isolate those suffering from it. To that end, he converted hospitals and commissioned new facilities, sending all patients - regardless of means - to sanitoria whose very names can still evoke unease amongst those who remember them: Ardkeen, Cherry Orchard, Portiuncula. He had a number of things on his side: much money from Joe McGrath’s Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes Fund, the recent discovery of the drug, Streptomycin, and the support of a broad swathe of people whose families had been oppressed by the disease. Tuberculosis was not eradicated overnight but Browne and the many who combated it in the 1940’s and 50’s stopped it dead in its tracks, so much so that the dreaded “san,” as it was known, has slipped off into its own chapter in Irish history along with diphtheria and scarlet fever wards . And what of Browne? We’ll need another column to deal with his complex story but here’s a clue for next week.

“Did you think you were the SaviourWhen the sick blessed your nameYou may have defeated your enemyBut you made new onesAnd they had patience and they were waiting…”

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

One of the great inauguration moments was watching President Bush’s helicopter disappear from view. Was it my imagination or did I hear a mass American sigh of relief? Talk about time to go!

Hopefully he took with him the dumb and dumber pills that his administration fed the country for eight vapid years. If President Obama ushers in anything, let’s hope that it’s a new era of respect for intelligence and practicality.

That man is indeed a breath of fresh air. He recognizes the importance of a decent health insurance system, the pointlessness of invading other countries, the incompatibility of torture with the American way, and the necessity of restoring our image internationally. In my book that puts him ahead of the curve before he even gets his gloves off.

What he doesn’t seem to have come to terms with is the gross overvaluation of assets on the balance sheets of many of our great financial service firms. Until then, all his talk of a stimulus is just so much dust - or should I say - dollars in the wind.

Or could it be that the figures he’s crunching are so bad he can’t risk letting us peons – or the Dow - know the full story. Truth or fiction, the present financial crisis will remain with us until we all take a deep gulp and let the market reassert itself.

Strange talk, you may say, from a person who cut his teeth on the economic tracts of James Connolly! Oddly enough, the man they shot in a chair predicted the current international financial meltdown; only problem - he was off by 90 or so years.

One way or another these “toxic” assets must be dealt with. Until then banks will not loan to each other, much less you, me or General Motors.

Markets abhor doubt and respect only one law – that of the jungle. Many of the unhealthier financial institutions must go under so that the fitter ones can survive. Tragically, they’ll take with them the hopes and dreams of their employees. Still, pumping billions more into Citigroup, et al, is pointless until all institutions that made bad calls actually value their assets in the real world and not the Narnia they’re currently inhabiting.

That will cause a seismic shock but what’s the alternative? Let the crisis dawdle on while the country’s fiscal future is ransomed to various stimuli that won’t work? Have you checked out your 401(k) lately? Probably not, the sight is just too gruesome. Yet, to my mind, stocks of many solid companies seem undervalued. But what chance is there of any appreciation in the current uncertain conditions?

President Obama can employ his accustomed flights of oratory until the cows come home, but a phrase from scripture that I first heard uttered by Rev. Ian Paisley hits closest to the mark, “if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Despite the dumbing down of the last eight years, I don’t have the least doubt that Americans will rise to the occasion. But we do need a good rock-solid floor beneath our feet before we get to work restoring the country’s fortune.

And what of Citigroup? Well, my Irish psychiatrist (local barman) gave his verdict a couple of nights back: “Just give me one of them corner bank buildings and I’ll turn it into the best bar in the city – presuming any of yez still has the price of a couple of pints.”

Seeing the new president didn’t take my advice and offer Steve Duggan, the gig as Treasury Secretary, maybe he should try the Rev. Ian. The man has some considerable baggage, and we’ll probably have to give him a pass on the questionnaire; but at least he’s got the first principle right – lay down a decent foundation before you start building.